mesa boogie rectifier knock-offs?

[daltyboy]

im looking for an amp that I can record w/ and gig thatll more than please me.I was gonna get a marshal but there reliability sux. mesa rectifiers are the shit except I dont have 2000 grand for a dual rectifier.
so know im looking for a great sound amp (perferably combo) for around $900 - $1500.

I was also considering hughes and ketner but dont know enough about them.

If it helps this is the tone Im after............Korns first album, Deftones and Tool.

 

[toyL]

korn's "tone"?...that's funny...jay leno funny.

 

[tubedude]

Well, you can have a new Dual Rec head like mine with 3 channels for around $1400... whats the problem? Do you have a cabinet already? If not, buy the head and a cheapo 2x12 cabinet and start saving for a decent celestion 4x12 cab. Bingo. There is your answer.

 

[Reggs]

Korns tone come from a combination of Mesa Boggie and Fecal Matter.

Fecal Matter is revolutionary idea in which you take your own fecal waste and start a band with it

 

[Newest User]

I was gonna get a marshal but there reliability sux.

Where did ya hear this?

Have you thought about a Carvin Legacy setup?


Peace,
Dennis

 

[tubedude]

Thier reliability DOES suck... go to a store, find 5 new TSL's side by side, and listen to each of them. They all sound different most of the time. Poor QC. Always have, always will. They either sound fantastic, or they sound like run of the mill stuff, ususally nothing in between. Mesa, on the other hand...

 

[guhlenn]

yeah yeah bullshit!

marshall reliability does not suck... MEsa's QC "sucks" too lately if you wanna go that route...
fact is that my marshall dsl has been gettin beaten in the bands van for about three years now and i never had a problem...

Damn people I love mesa but this marshall sucks mesa's great thing has got to end...

Guhlenn

 

[Newest User]

Poor QC. Always have, always will.

As far as most of the JCM800, non resissue Plexi's and JTM45 types they have had pretty good. I think the biggest flaw in the last 10 years has been the quality of the tubes for the most part, pretty poor tubes are being put in them. I had GT's put in my amp and reliability is excellent. I think Mesa uses a better tube from the git go and that may be where the whole issue lies. The stock "Marshall" tubes that came with my amp blew within 2 weeks. The amp wasn't biased at the factory, so it wasn't the tubes, maybe this is still the problem in consistancy. I wouldn't go as far as to say one sucks and the other doesn't though, because Ive had other guitarist friends that have had boogies, some good, some not so good. Ive had some problems, and Ive had friends that have never had problems. Ive owned amps from Dean Markely, KMD, Marshall, Fender, Danelectro and Peavey. Between my friend Jim and I we have owned an played through just about everything... I don't really care who makes it, I just want it to sound like what makes me happy. But it must have tubes


Peace,
Dennis

 

[Matt303]

I'm suprised that you think the Marshall has bad relability, I worked for a repair service for some time and found that many of the mesa boogie amps were very unreliable and in the most annoying ways, they usualy didn't fail but the sound degraded (according to the owners) Unfortunately a desription like "it just dosn't have the balls it used too...." is not something you can easily fix.
Accepting that the old Marshall heads were death traps i.e. bad fitting brittle connectors and pin to pin wiring, they usually failed when abused, normally switching on without a speaker connected was the main failure cause resulting in a new transformer which was not cheap as I recall. The later models did away with a seperate valve heater supply and used a step down resistor which is prone to failure, a wire wound type (looks like a white ceramic block with a wire out of each end) aside from this they were more reliable than most. Although I never much cared for the sound if you going for that type of overdriven sound I guess its just a matter of preference.
Echoing the sentiments of guhlenn Guitarists often abuse their gear more than most, like leaving it in a damp van all week and just expect it to work and get really pissed off when they are asked to pay for a repair which results from poor maintenance. I think the boogie is a superior sounding amp but you get what you pay for and if I liked the Marshal sound I would'nt let some chinese whisper over reliability stop me getting one (by the way the old death trap models do seem to sound better)

 

[jeronimo]

I can say that Marshall´s (JCM900 and newer models) tone suck... I don´t know about QC thou...
You can get Dual Rects for $1300 new or Triple Rects for 1700 I gues... or something around this...
Try the 3 channel H&K, I don´t remember the model, but I do remember the tone!! Very good.
Try the Laney VH100, It lack´s personality, but if you´re thinking about recording... that´s nothing a good compressor & EQ (meek) couldn´t solve.
By the way, I´m a drummer.

I forgot... I´ve made a shootout w/ a Peavey Classic 50 (early model combo), a Dual Rectfier and a VH100 last sunday... I´ll post the mp3s soon and I want you guys to try to find out which one is which... that will be fun!

 

[guhlenn]

considering you're a drummer you would have no right to talk about tone... but let's say drummers ARE musicians (hehehe, couldn't resist ) ...

but if you say the newer marshalls suck you already discredited yourself...

dude marshall is still the standard... and i own a DSL and believe me the tone is nothing but great, not versatile, not a Fender clean, but everything you could expect from a marshall tonewise...

Guhlenn

 

[jeronimo]

Hey Guhlenn,

Thanks for your comments, but after beign a drummer... I´m a recording engineer... I should know something about guitar tone, maybe even better than you (in the recording field)... sorry I couldn´t resist either...

By the way... I love the JCM 800 but I do hate the 900s and 2Ks...
I tried the AVT something (I don´t remember the model, but I know it was a valvestate) and it sux even worse (makes sense huh?)...

But I think I need to mention that "tone" is a particular thing. Maybe you like the "Nine Inch Nails guitar tone"... maybe you´ll like "Hendrix´s guit tones" some people like "korn´s guit tone" so... I don´t think I should loose more time talkin´ about tone...

The guy asked for a Korn tone, so go for a Dual/Triple Rect tone
Deftones - go for a JCM 800 / Dual Rect tone
Tool - try a Soldano SLO 60 with drive 1/3 up and you´ll see (I mean, hear).

That´s my thoughts about gear "labeled" tones. Do you agree?

 

[guhlenn]

hmmm the drummer joke .. well i had to make it..

it always gets my drummer (see the arrogance ; MY drummer... ) riled up... hehehe

To be honest I dislike the 900 series too, but it's more of a hearin' the grass grow thing... anfd by grass i mean the green stuff that ISN'T illegal..

i have the dsl as mentioned and ofcourse you cvan dislike the marshall tone but it's all there.. and i think the dsl comes pretty close to the rectifier... i like the rectifier but it really works like a cheap distortion box; no matter what you put in , you'll know what will come out; everything is alike... tonewise...

now anyway, i would be more then interrested n yur little shoot-out... since i claim rectifiers are all the same i would like to see if i'm fooling myself... put in two samples of each amp... with the only difference being the guitar... that would be fun...

Well anyway, keep me posted..

Guhlenn

oh and you suck if you think new marshalls suck hehehe

 

[guhlenn]

I should know something about guitar tone, maybe even better than you (in the recording field)...

hmmm yeah you wish!!! hehehe but seriously, i have a question now you have come forward as a tone freak; i heard from some engineers that mesa amps tend too lose focus after beign turned on for more then an hour ie the mesa needs to be shut off and cool down before recording the next take... did you hear about this?


That´s my thoughts about gear "labeled" tones. Do you agree?

yes i do actually. Except for the tool tone..., but that's because i've never heard a soldano SLO-60
i would say a modded 800... but i guess that's basically the same...

well anyway, I'm lookin forward to the amp shoot-out... be sure to mail me ! guhlenn@hotmail.com

 

[jeronimo]

Hey guhlenn,

Should I mention that I was kiddin´ with my comment about knowledge? I was just trying to reply your comment about drummers

I had the Mesa on for about four consecutive hours BUT with long intervals on StandBy mode... :/

We haven´t listened any problems with the amp during this period...

I had a SLO 60 for a few hours last friday... hummm... dude... it sounded just like some songs on Lateralus...

I think that´s all by now...

I´ll try to post the shootout this week...

Peace!

 

[guhlenn]

HE jeronimo,

no you did not have too... i don't care whether you know more or less then me, since i always think I'm right anyway !!!

no but seriously, i would have to check it out... right now i'm saving for a mark IV and a custom rig (some friend s who know their shit , oh yes !!!)

But then again... they're not expensive at all so if i see one... i'll let ya know...

don't forget the shoot-out!

Guhlenn

 

[Lopp]

Re.: Mesa's being left on and tone quality

I have a Quad preamp and it generally sounds better after being left on for an hour.

My TriAxis is a more consistent. There isn't a noticeable difference in tone regardless of the amount of time it is left on.

Of course, these are both preamps. The tone problem may result from some aspect of the power amp sections.

 

[guhlenn]

i guess so yeah... poweramps

the discussion was about the rectifier and mark series... head i mean...


Guhlenn

 

[jeronimo]

hey lopp, good to hear your input...
How do you like your Triaxis? What kind of power amp you use with it?

 

[Lopp]

guhlenn:

I realize what the thread started out as. However, you mentioned you heard from some engineers that mesa amps tend too lose focus after beign turned on for more then an hour. You didn't specify heads, so I thought I'd volunteer first hand knowledge of actual experiences. Hope it helped.

jeronimo:

I love my TriAxis. Especially because I am a guitarist and a sound engineer (along with being a homereccer). Point being, that I can quickly flip through stored tones to get a perfect tone that not only reacts the way I want to my playing, but also enhances the entire sound of the band (when playing live).

I picked it up on eBay for around $800 for version 2 without the fat mod.

I'm using it with a SS Lee Jackson 100W power amp into a Vintage Celestion equipped 2x12. While I love it, I'd eventually like to try it with a tube power amp (20/20 or 2:90) and a 4x12.


Matt